Philip W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Philip W., who was born in 1922 in Wadowice, Poland, one of four children. He recounts his family's orthodoxy; attending school for two years in Skawina; antisemitic harassment; participating in Zionist organizations; German invasion in 1939; fleeing with his family to Skawina, Krako?w, Lubaczo?w, then Rava-Rus?ka; returning home; anti-Jewish restrictions; three days in prison; deportation to Sosnowiec in April 1941; transfer to Gogolin; slave labor building the Reichsautobahn; receiving packages from his parents for six months; transfer to Gross Masselwitz; praying daily and fasting on Yom Kippur; transfer to Neukirch in May 1942; receiving extra bread from a guard; sharing food with fellow inmates; transfer to Marksta?dt in May 1943; slave labor for Krupp; privileged work in a smithy; transfer to Fu?nfteichen; a death march to Gross-Rosen in January 1945; transfer to Dora/Nordhausen a week later; escaping during an Allied bombing; hiding with five others; liberation by United States troops; living in Nordhausen, Allendorf, and Fulda displaced persons camps; assistance from UNRRA; living in Marburg; and emigration to the United States via Frankfurt in July 1949. Mr. W. discusses focusing only on hunger in the camps; giving up once; public hangings of captured escapees; the loss of over a hundred relatives in the Holocaust; recurrent nightmares; and attributing his survival to luck. He shows documents and photographs.
Extent and Medium
4 videocassettes
Conditions Governing Access
This testimony is open with permission.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright has been transferred to the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Use of this testimony requires permission of the Fortunoff Video Archive.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- W., Philip, -- 1922-
Corporate Bodies
- Sosnowiec (Concentration camp)
- United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
- Fried. Krupp AG.
- Dora (Concentration camp)
- Gross Masselwitz (Concentration camp)
- Nordhausen (Concentration camp)
- Gross-Rosen (Concentration camp)
- Markstädt (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Postwar effects.
- Refugee camps.
- Escapes.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Nightmares.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar experiences.
- Hiding.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Forced labor.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Death marches.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Religious life.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
Places
- Allendorf (Germany : Refugee camp)
- Fulda (Germany : Refugee camp)
- Fünfteichen (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Nordhausen (Germany : Refugee camp)
- Gogolin (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Neukirch (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
- Marburg (Germany)
- Lubaczów (Poland)
- Rava-Rusʹka (Ukraine)
- Kraków (Poland)
- Skawina (Poland)
- Poland.
- Wadowice (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat